Fruitful
by kimmiesjoy
Summary: It's an answer that hangs in the air between them, only they might be asking the wrong question.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I've crossed over to the dark side! This is probably a two chapter doodar, happy Sunday peoples :)

* * *

Soft light from the single lit lamp threw the room into a battle of object and shadow and Kate dropped gingerly to the bed with a long sigh. She was tired, more so than usual but it _had _ been a long day and she reached over into the night-stand for her book, hoping to curl up and relax before she fell asleep, when he came bounding into the room.

He froze in the doorway of the bedroom, the blur of midnight throwing a shaded cape out from his shoulders that crept away from him on the wooden floors and meandered off into his office. The bare line of his legs held her eyes and for a few seconds she let herself get lost in the solid form of him just standing there in the doorway before her eyes finally slid up to his face.

His mouth was open and no sound came from him, just the glazed expression of worry that immediately made her toss her book aside and crawl up onto her knees. Kate made her way across the bed until she was perched at the end, rising high, her arms extended for him and whatever it was that had caused his eyes to open, so very wide and fearful.

"Castle?" She called and her voice seemed to shock him from his frozen state, and he threw up his arms in horror, his mouth still wide before he strode across the room and dropped down beside her on the bed.

"Well Alexis is pregnant." Castle sighed, turning his wide eyes to Kate as he waved the little white stick in the air.

"What?" Kate barked, making herself jump. She grabbed for Castle, holding tight to his arm to steady herself as she peered over his shoulder. "Why do you think she's pregnant?" She fought to control the volume of her voice as she practically climbed him, grabbing his wrist to bring his hand closer to her face.

"It's a_ pregnancy_ test." Castle stated bluntly, as if she couldn't see that already, "I found it in her bathroom."

Kate snatched at his fingers, finally pulling the test from his grip to stare at it. "It's positive."

Castle sighed, "I know, apparently the _fruitarian _ is _fruitful_." Castle let out a rumbling growl under his breath, turning to Kate, "I'm gonna kill him." He said, as Kate shook the test in her hand and then rechecked the box, as if her movement would alter the outcome, "Where's your gun?"

"In the safe." But she didn't look up, still holding the test between two fingers - quite a way away from her cos ... ew - and she shook it again, scrunching up her face in almost as much horror as Castle's.

"I'm too young to be a grandfather." He moaned, dropping his head in his hands, only to realize what they had been holding only moments before. Castle jumped to his feet, running his hands down his pant legs as he went, "I've barely finished being a dad and now this ... this bee counter has gone and ..." He grimaced unable to say the words, "He and my baby have... have ... and now ..." Castle growled again, long and low and so menacing that Kate's head snapped up, finally registering his tone. "That little piece of - "

"Pi?"

"I'm gonna square the son of a - Oh my God!" He spun on his heels and turned back to the bed, his eyes wider and his face more panicked than when he had first entered the bedroom, "What if it has his hair?"

He hissed the words like a frightening curse, as if even uttering them was tempting the fate of the universe or karma or whatever the hell deity had deemed it necessary to screw with his head.

Still staring down at the test, Castle barely heard Kate when she mumbled, "Might look like Alexis".

"My baby with a baby." He yelled in Kate's direction, stalking back and forth in a very good impression of the Linus that had haunted her dreams, "What if it has a moustache?"

Letting out a startled laugh, Kate shook her head, rolled her eyes, and finally looked up, "It's a baby Castle."

He gesticulated wildly, his arms flailing, his fingers pointing as if she should know these things, know better than to imply he might have ever so slightly started to lose his ever loving mind. "Babies have been born with beards before now, and tails, and horns."

"It's not the devil child, Castle." She snorted.

"It could be, Kate." His eyes grew wider still and he dropped down before her on his knees, hissing the words with fear, "What if it has no soul?"

Kate took a deep breath and thumped her hand down, hard, on his shoulder, clutching the white of his shirt tight between her fingers to tug him closer, whispering quietly, "You'll still love it."

Their eyes held and he crawled nearer, inched his way into Kate's arms with his hands either side of her knees, fingers moving up her legs until he sat before her. Castle stared up at her sorrowfully, unable to keep the thought in his head from slipping out of his mouth. "Tiny horns?" He squeaked.

"Still love it." She mumbled again, fingers sweeping his shoulder, a soft smile playing over her lips that was completely lost on him.

"And red eyes." He muttered petulantly.

She smiled wider, stroked out across his back, leant forward into him until her hand was curving around his neck, "Castle, it could have three ears, purple spots and be born wearing an entire Kevin Ryan outfit, complete with Windsor knotted tie and sweater vest, and you would _still_ love it. In fact - " she challenged - even as pride flooded the words - her fingers dancing out across his chest to touch at his heart, "you would _dote_ on it."

He grunted, his bottom lip popping out and his too-blue eyes narrowing at her with a knowing look that told her she was getting through - even if he didn't _like_ hearing it.

"Spoil it rotten, wouldn't you, Castle." There was no question in her words as she pulled him closer, nuzzled his cheek and grinned when he huffed.

He pouted, ran his hands up her legs and squeezed her knees, "She's too young."

"She is." Kate agreed, smiling into his skin, "But _I'm_ not."

"What?"

"I think you need to concentrate on something else." Kate said quietly, catching his hand between her own and pulling it up and away from her knees, laying it flat over her stomach.

"Something else?" He gulped, his eyes dropping to where she had laid his hand, his mind catching up with the thunderous roar of his heartbeat.

"Yeah."

"Like what?" His eyes darted up to her face, found her own staring back, shinier than before. Her cheeks were pink with something indefinable, mysterious, something possibly magical that lurked just below the tips of their joined fingers.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before she smiled, "Like the fact that that test may have been in her bathroom _today_ Castle, but Alexis hasn't been_ here_ for three weeks."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: Thank you so much for the lovely response this story received. Sorry it took me such a long time to finish it.

* * *

Soft strokes and the gentle quiver of his hand over her stomach made her skin flutter and Kate watched him for a reaction.

"Are you pregnant?" He hushed out, eyes glued to her skin in the lamp light of their bedroom, as if he could see through and confirm it for himself. His fingers roamed over the back of her hands, lifted her shirt and traced a light path around her belly button. He watched her grip tighten as they sat there, palms curled protectively over a possibility.

"I - yeah?" Kate caught his hands and held them still, four hands and the world captured between them. Her voice quaked with sudden intense longing. "I think so."

"Not Alexis?" He squeaked back, still terrified by that prospect, adoring and yearning for this new one presented to him.

"No." Kate hummed, lifting a hand to push the hair back from his forehead. She tilted her head, thumbed the lines at the edges of his eyes and watched the reality sink in.

"Oh, thank god." He buried his face in her lap, let out a loud HA! of relief. He kissed her exposed skin, hot breath licking out and making her laugh at his exuberance, and then he sat bolt upright, "Wait wait." Castle squeaked, dropping hard onto his backside on the floor and reaching for the test they had tossed aside, "This was _upstairs_. Why didn't you take it down here?"

Kate drew her lip into her mouth and bit down hard, wrinkling her nose as she tried to find the right words. She extended a hand to Castle as he pulled himself up to her side, and looked into his eyes.

There was no accusation in his words or expression, just curiosity and a healthy dose of excitement that he was trying - and failing - to hold in.

It sent sparks of something warm and lovely shooting through her whole body. She could be ...

"You were in the shower when I came home and I -" Kate murmured, casting a sideways glance at him, a soft smile under the fall of her eyelashes that made him ache. Castle pressed into her side, as close as he could get and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"You didn't want to wait?" He asked, eager eyes alight with it all.

"I didn't want to_ pee_ in front of you." She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck and burrowing her hot flushing cheeks into his skin.

"If you're pregnant you're gonna be doing a whole lot more than _peeing_ in front of me." He beamed, rubbing her back and holding in another laugh when she smacked him hard on the leg.

"Gross."

"True."

"Yeah." She hummed, and she felt him wrap his arms around her. Warm and not quite giddy but getting there, Kate let herself sink into him.

She smiled and held on tight for a few seconds before finally pulling back to find his eyes. She knew her own were still shining but there was a flicker of doubt in them that he watched, his fingers sweeping over her skin all the while.

It made him wonder, it made him ask.

"It was negative wasn't it." He spoke quietly, eyes still trained on her face. "When you took it, it came up negative, because when I said _Alexis_ was pregnant and showed you the test, you were shocked."

Kate nodded slowly and sighed, "I was going to tell you." She promised, but Castle shook his head, showed her with just a loving, tender glance that it wasn't about that, he wasn't worried she was shutting him out. Just curious. As usual.

Kate took a deep breath and said "I've just been tired."

She started slowly, found the words came easier than expected when she was staring up in the warmth "And late. Not a lot, but enough to wonder, and I took the test and waited but it came up negative, so I tossed it." Her fingers closed around the hand still holding the thin white stick and she turned it over, staring down at his palm. "I thought I'd process it a bit and tell you tonight, take another one in the morning just to be sure."

Castle nodded, waited, let her tell him the story at her own pace. And he found himself becoming absorbed in her tone, her wonder, and the quiet, calm reverence etched in every word.

"You were out of the shower when I came down and I wanted a bath and few minutes to myself, just to figure out_ how_ to tell you without getting your - my - hopes up." She turned her face up to him in wonder, "It's really positive?"

"Yeah." He held the stick out to her again, watched her trace the device with quivering fingers for a few seconds as they sat in silence. "Do you think -?"

"I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders and let her body fall into his, drawing warmth and support from the closeness, from the way he wrapped her up and pulled her nearer, his chin resting on the top of her head.

They became a partnership of near silent sighs, soothing caresses and one joint gaze that meandered between loving eyes and the device that dangled a little piece of their future out before them like a carrot

"Take it now." Castle said, pushing her back from him, his face determined but his voice low and almost pleading.

"What?" A small part of her wasn't sure she wanted to know and Kate breathed the word slowly, watching him all the while. A yes was a yes, but a no was - oh god - she'd already faced that prospect once today. But this time she had Castle.

This time, and the next time and however many times there after. She had Castle.

"The test you were going to take in the morning to be sure, take it now." He sat back clasped her hands in his and tipped his head closer, found her in the swirling depth of emotion that held her trapped in her own head and he squeezed her hands, waited, held on and drew her out slowly.

"I guess I - yes of course." Kate shook her head, let a flare of need rise within her and lift her up. She smiled as she caught a little of his excitement, "I can do that." Her eyes narrowed, "I'm still not peeing in front of you so you'll have to wait out here."

"You have a spare right?" He asked, ignoring her comment, reaching to pull her from the bed only to turn and find she was already on her feet rummaging through her night-stand.

"Yes." She tossed two boxes at him and laughed as he added up the tests.

"You came prepared." He nodded, impressed, opening the pregnancy tests and holding the white sticks out to her.

"Apparently there was a night _you_ didn't." Kate teased.

"Come _prepared_ or just c-"

Her hand groped for his shirt and Kate's smile fell away. "What if it's -?"

"I'm good either way." Castle promised, stepping back to her, smoothing over her face with the back of his hand, "I like our story, Kate, and if this is the next chapter then so be it. But if it's not and we've just jumped ahead a few pages I'm good to -"

"Keep reading?" She finished for him, her fingers dipping into his and emerging holding the tests tight in her hand.

"Exactly." He agreed with a firm shake of his head, stepping in closer, "What about you? Are you-? I mean you seemed happy before when -"

"It's sooner than I would have thought but - I - Yeah ... what you said?" She laughed, moaned and dropped her head to his chest.

"So eloquent."

"Shut up." Her words came out muffled in his shirt and unable to resist the quiet call of her body, Castle wrapped her up tight in his arms again.

"Don't worry, babe," Castle soothed, grinning into her hair when she growled, "if you _are_ pregnant, we can always put it down to baby-brain."

* * *

She peed with his ear pressed to the bathroom door and her eyes rolling continuously as he spoke to her the entire time. With reassuring commentary he told her over and over again that she could do it. She could. She could pee all day if she had too.

When she emerged from the bathroom with four tests in her hands Kate levelled him with a look and uttered one single, solitary sentence.

"When I give birth I'm duct taping your mouth - mmmfff."

The rest was lost in a collision of limbs and his sweet, frantic kiss.


End file.
